The Carleton Cave
Ben reviews his experiences as an audience member and musician at The Cave, a music venue at Carleton.
Ben reviews his experiences as an audience member and musician at The Cave, a music venue at Carleton.
What is the Cave?
The Cave is one of my favorite spots on campus. It is a student-run music and entertainment venue located below Evans Hall. While it has been a bit quieter during the pandemic, during my first two years at Carleton it felt like there was always something happening at the Cave. I want to share two experiences I’ve had at the Cave—one as an audience member, and one as a bandmate up on stage.
Important to note: all photos in this blog post were taken pre-pandemic.
As an audience member.
One great thing about the Cave is the size of the space. The smaller venue feels super intimate, both amongst audience members and between the audience and the performing band. This leads to a lot of cool conversations and interactions. One band I saw my sophomore year was Slow Pulp, a small indie rock band that visited the Cave during the fall. My friends and I checked out their most recent album and really liked it, so we got there early. We spent the next two hours letting loose: jumping around, hyping up the musicians, and just enjoying the performance. At one point the guitarist grabbed my friend’s hat and wore it for a couple of songs which was pretty funny. The best moment was when they played a cover of “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac, which most of the audience knew so it turned it into a bit of a sing-a-long.
After the show, we met the band members. I play the drums here at Carleton, so I talked for a while with their drummer about different artists we like. It was cool getting to meet them. When I went to a show of theirs a few months later in Chicago during winter break, they actually recognized me and gave my friends and me free tickets to the show that night!
As a musician.
I have also performed in the Cave. I am in a band with a couple of other Carls called The Megs that exclusively covers The Chats, an Australian punk-rock band. We formed one week before Battle of the Bands, which happens every spring, and practiced probably five times before we took the stage. After tuning our instruments we jammed out with tons of energy. Though we did not advance to the second round, we were crowd favorites and have since developed a more organized practice plan. As a STEM major and varsity athlete, it is cool that I still have the time and opportunity to play music at Carleton. As a Carleton student in general, you will get to try lots of new things and figure out what you enjoy.
If you come to Carleton, be sure to check out the Cave. It should be back and better than ever post-pandemic!
Ben is a rising Senior from Boulder, CO. He is majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Spanish. Outside of academics, Ben is a long-distance runner for Carleton’s Cross Country and Track teams (his favorite event is the steeplechase) and he also plays the drums for The Megs, a student band that covers Australian punk rock music. Meet the other Bloggers!